Santa Luz fire, August 2016 Santa Luz, Currais, Palmeira do Piauí
The fire started on 29 August 2016 in Santa Luz, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 683th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 542 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.
- Burnt area
- 3,340ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 29 Aug 2016 – 4 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 125
- in a single hotspot: 338 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
1,634 ha reached on 29 Aug1.4 %
-
Currais 4,854 inhabitants1,126 ha reached on 30 Aug0.4 %
-
Palmeira do Piauí 4,952 inhabitants350 ha reached on 2 Sept0.2 %
-
Cristino Castro 10,503 inhabitants250 ha reached on 30 Aug0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Aug | 36.3 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Aug | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Sept | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Sept | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Sept | 34.7 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Sept | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Sept after | 35.9 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Sept after | 35.9 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Sept after | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Sept after | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Sept after | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 125Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Santa Luz fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2016 and 4 September 2016: 7 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,340 hectares (33.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Santa Luz (1,634 ha, 1.4 %); Currais (1,126 ha, 0.4 %); Palmeira do Piauí (350 ha, 0.2 %); Cristino Castro (250 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Brazil (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 193
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.